Nail cartridge for driving tool magazines and flexible nail strip therefor



Dec-7 1967 A. LANGAS ETAL 3,357,761

NAIL CARTRIDGE FOR DRIVING TOOL MAGAZINES AND FLEXIBLE NAIL STRIPTHEREFOR 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Oct. 11, 1965 INVENTORS ARTHUR LANGASFRANK C. HOWARD Dec. 12, 1967 A. LANGAS ETAL 3,3 7,

NAIL CARTRIDGE FOR DRIVING TOOL MAGAZINES AND FLEXIBLE NAIL STRIPTHEREFOR Filed 001;. 11, 1965 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTORS ARTHUR LANGASFRANK C. HOWARD Dec. 12, 1967 A. LANGAS ETAL 3,357,761

NAIL CARTRIDGE FOR DRIVING TOOL MAGAZINES AND FLEXIBLE NAIL STRIPTHEREFOR Filed Oct. 11, 1965 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 40 I I J10 I EL LZnlll: InIii INVENTORS ARTHUR LANGAS FRANK C. HOWARD B Q- Now-"Aw,

United States a Patent Office.

3,357,761 Patented Dec. 12, 1967 3,357,761 1 NAIL CARTRIDGE FOR DRIVINGTOOL MAGA- ZINES AND FLEXIBLE NAIL STRJP THEREFOR Arthur Langas,Chicago, and Frank C. Howard, Wheel:

ing,,IIl., assignors to Signode Corporation, Chicago, 111.,

a corporation of Delaware Filed Oct. 11, 1965, Ser. No. 494,476 Claims.(Ci. 3121-73) The present invention relates to a nail package and hasparticular reference to, a novelnail cartridge designed for insertioninto the magazine of a power actuated nail driving tool, and it also hasreference to a flexible nail assembly or strip of interconnected nailscapable of use in connection with, and as a component part of, such nailcartridge but which also, under certain circumstances, is useableindependently thereof.

Heretofore, in the magazine feeding of nails to the driving element of apower actuated tool, where only a relatively small number of nails isrequired for a given operation, individual lengths of serially arrangedinterconnected nails, properly oriented for cooperation with a driver,are loaded in the tool magazine, reloading operations being resorted toas each length becomes exhausted. Usually, such lengths consist ofcontiguous or closely spaced nails which are interconnected by one ormore continuous narrow webs of a flexible adhesive tape. Due to theclose spacing of the nails, as well as the manner in which the tape isapplied to the nails, the resultant structure is relatively inflexibleor rigid and is comprised of, a row of aligned nails the overall lengthof which is a function of the number of nails involved. Such nailpackages are commonly referred to as sticks and the maximum length ofany given stick is, of course, a function of the tolerable length of themagazine which is employed to receive it. Where portable power tools areconcerned, a rigid stick containing on the order of seventy-five nailscreates a problem in tool handling. Where a lesser number of nails isinvolved, frequent magazine loading must be resorted to.

Where a relatively large number of nails is required for a givenoperation, a continuous magazine feed has been employed in which a largemultiplicity of serially arranged oriented nails are taped or wiredtogether so that they may be coiled or otherwise grouped together andthen serially fed through a magazine where they become aligned beforeultimately arriving at the driving station. This latter method ofmagazine feeding is suitable for stationary nailing machines and thelike but it is impractical for portable tools where weight and spacelimitations are at a premium and where facilities for storing thegrouped or coiled nails are not conveniently available. Where theelongated nail strip is not sufliciently flexible, difliculty isencountered in pulling the nails through the magazine. Where the stripis extremely flexible, tilting or tumbling of the nails, particularly asthe main nail package becomes depleted, results in tangling of the nailstrip and jamming thereof at the region of entry into the nail magazine.This condition is especially prevalent where portable tools which areoperated at varying angles are concerned.

The present invention is designed to overcome the above-notedlimitations that are attendant upon the construction and use ofconventional nail packages or assemblies, particularly those which areemployed in connection with, portable power actuated nail-driving toolsand, toward this end, the invention contemplates the provision of anovel nail cartridge in the form of a package type unit, capable ofbeing loaded bodily into the magazine of such a tool and which, whenloaded therein, is completely enclosed within the magazine. According tothe present invention, the nail cartridge includes an outer shell orcontainer defining an internal compartmented space within which thereis. disposed a singleelongatedw flexible strip of serially arrangedinterconnected nails or bunched so that they are substantially equallydis-= tributed in the various compartments and the leading compartmentis provided with a narrow slot for egress of the nails successively andone at a time for passage thereof to the driving :station of the tool.The driving tool is provided with intermittently operable means.

whereby the nailsare advanced toward the driving, station, suchadvancingthereof serving to pull the flexible nail strip endwise. from theleading. compartment until such time as the main bulk of. nails in thecompartment,

has been exhausted. Thereafter, the strip will be drawn in linearstraight-line fashion through this compartment from the next adjacentcompartment until such time as this second compartment also has beensubstantially exi hausted of nails and the portion of the nail stripremaining therein is drawn in straight-line fashion through this latter.compartment from the third compartment. Depending upon the number ofaligned compartments employed, withdrawal of nails from the successivecompartments will take place until all of the nails in the trailingcompartment have been exhausted, after which the row of nails extendingto the exit slot in the leading compartment will be pulled from theshell or container and conducted successively to the driving station.

The provision of a compartmented shell with substantial equaldistribution of nails within the various compartments results in ahigh-walled enclosure for each group of nails, the enclosure havingsmall transverse dimensions so that the nails of the group cannot tiltappreciably and thus cause snarling or tangling of the nail strip. Inorder to further confine the nails of each group against lateralshifting, particularly as the associated compartment becomes depleted ofnails, the side walls of the shell are inclined inwardly and downwardlyso that a tapered effect is given the over-all shell, the wider upperregions of the various compartments serving to accommodate the largerdiameter nail heads while the narrower lower regions thereof serve toaccommodate the smaller diameter nail shanks. The aforementioned narrowspaces which establish communication between adjacent compartments areso designed that only one nail at a time may traverse each space,thereby precluding any tendency for jamming of plural nails within suchspaces. A flexible closure flap in the vicinity of the exit slotassociated with the leading compartment serves to prevent inadvertentloss of nails from the shell during handling of the cartridge beforeinstallation thereof in the tool magazine but allows for flow of thenails from the shell without appreciable effort during operation of thedriving tool.

An important feature of the present invention, apart from the provisionof the compartmented cartridge shell, resides in the manner in which thevarious nails which cooperate to make up the flexible strip are securedtogether in their serially arranged relationship. To insure extremeflexibilty of the strip, the nails are arranged in spaced parallelismand are connected together by a flexible narrow web of adhesive tapewhich make tangential contact with all of the nail shanks on the sameside thereof and which extends in a direction transversely of the axesof the nails. To completelycapture the nails and prevent pulling thereofaway from their lines of adhesive contact with the tape, a second web ofadhesive tape encompasses a major portion of the circumference of eachnail shank and makes face-to-face contact with the first web in betweeneach pair of adjacent nails in the series. Thus each nail shank is, ineffect, completely encompassed by an individual ring or band of adhesivetape so that dislodgement of the nails from the composite web isvirtually impossible except under the impact of the nail driverassociated with the impact tool. Such an arrangement possesses at leastone marked advantage over conventional adhesive webconnected nail stripsin that when tension is applied to the composite web it is entirelyassimilated by the first adhesive Web which only makes tangentialcontact with the nail shanks and therefore has no tendency to dislodgethe nails as is the case in connection with conventional nail stripswhere the nails are sandwiched between two webs, each of which partiallyencompasses the nail shanks.

By the present arrangement, comparatively wide nail spacing in thecompleted strip allows for flexibility of the strip in either bendingdirection without nail interference so that flexing of the strip in bothbending directions is possible. Because the nail strip is thusuniversally flexible, initial loading of the strip into thecompartmented shell is facilitated due to the fact that the groups ofnails may be bunched indiscriminately with no particular through beinggiven as to how the nails may distribute themselves within thecompartments. Similiarly, in withdrawing the nails from any givencompartment, free outflow of the strip endwise from the compartment willtake place without binding or jamming of the strip due to the inabilitythereof to bend in one direction. Although the flexible nail strip ofthe present invention is particularly well adapted for use in connectionwith a compartmented shell in the production of a nail cartridge formagazine loading purposes as set forth above, the strip is notnecessarily limited to such use inasmuch as such nail strips may befound useful for direct feeding of nails through an aligning magazine toa nailing station where they are driven into the work by a pneumaticalyoperated or other impact driver. In such an instance the nail strip isreadily susceptible to a coiling operation wherein the nails arearranged in involute fashion so as to provide a reservoir of nails formagazine feeding purposes, or the strip may be arranged in serpentinefashion in layers and in a noncompartmented receptacle for endwisewithdrawal of the strip for magazine feeding purposes.

The provision of a nail package or cartridge such as has been brieflyoutlined above and the provision of a flexible nail strip as a componentpart of such as cartridge constituting the principal objects of theinvention, it is a further object to provide such a cartridge in whichthe cartridge container or shell may be formed of inexpensive plasticmaterial so that it may be discarded after the nail contents thereof hasbeen exhausted.

Numerous other objects and advantages of the invention, not at this timeenumerated, will readily suggest themselves as the nature of theinvention is better understood.

In the accompanying three sheets of drawings forming a part of thisspecification, one illustrative embodiment of the invention has beenshown.

In these drawings:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a nail cartridge constructed accordingto the principles of the present invention and showing the leading edgeregion of the contained nail strip emerging from the exit openingassociated with the cartridge shell;

FIG. 2 is a side elevational view of the structure shownin FIG. 1 withportions of the cartridge shell broken away to reveal more clearly thenature of the invention;

FIG. 3 is a rear end view of the nail cartridge;

FIG. 4 is a front end view of the nail cartridge;

FIG. 5 is a transverse sectional view taken substantially on the line5-5 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 6 is a modified sectional view taken substantially on the line 6-6of FIG. 2 and illustrating schematically the manner in which thecartridge is installed in the magazine of a nail driving tool forsuccessive indexing of the nail strip and consequent progressivewithdrawal thereof from the cartridge;

FIG. 7 is an exploded perspective view of the two-part sectionalcompartmented cartridge shell;

FIG. 8 is a fragmentary view of a portion of a nail assembly or stripconstructed according to the invention;

FIG. 9 is a sectional view taken substantially on the line 9-9 of FIG.8;

FIG. 10 is a sectional view taken substantially on the line 1010 of FIG.8, and

FIG. 11 is a top plan view of the nail strip of FIG. 8, showing the samein a coiled condition for magazine feeding purposes.

Referring now to the drawings in detail and in particular to FIGS. 1 to4 inclusive, briefly, a nail package or cartridge embodying the presentinvention has been designated in its entirety at 10 and it involves inits general organization an outer container or shell 12 which iscompartmented in a novel manner that will be described presently toprovide three interconnected internal chambers or compartments 16, 18and 20 and within which shell there is disposed an elongated flexiblestrip 22 of interconnected nails. The nature of the nail strip 22likewise will be made clear subsequently but for the present it isdeemed sufiicient to state that the strip is comprised of a largemultiplicity of individual nails 24 (see also FIG. 8) which areconnected together and maintained in spaced parallelism by means of oneor more composite webs 26 of pressure-adhesive tape, two such webs beingemployed in the exemplary form of the invention disclosed herein. Thenail strip is thus of a flexible nature and it is capable of readilybeing bunched as clearly shown in FIGS. 2 and 6 so that the nailsthereof may be divided into three groups with one group being disposedin each of the three compartments 16, 18 and 20 but with adjacent groupsbeing connected together by intervening portions of the nail strip whichextend through relatively narrow nail passages 28 which exist betweenadjacent compartments. The compartment 16 constitutes the leadingcompartment of the shell 10 and it is provided with a narrow naildischarge opening or passage 30 through which the strip 22 may beforcibly pulled during nail-dispensing operations in a manner and for apurpose that also will be made clear subsequently.

From the above brief description it will be readily seen that whentension or pulling force is applied to the leading edge of the nailstrip 22 tending to withdraw the same from the shell 12 through thedischarge passage 30, the group of nails 24 in the leading compartment16 will initially be withdrawn from the shell and then, when thecompartment has become nearly depleted of nails, pulling force will beapplied to the portion of the strip containing the group of nails in theintermediate compartment 18 tending to draw them through the compartment16 and from thence through the outlet passage 30. Similarly, when thenails in the compartment 18 become nearly depleted, pulling force willbe applied to the portion of the strip containing the group of nails inthe trailing compartment 20 so that these nails will be drawn throughthe compartments 18 and 16 in the order named and from thence throughthe outlet passage 20.

As a basis for a better and more detailed understanding of the natureand functioning of the cartridge shell 12 during nailing operations, itis necessary that the character of the nail strip 22 be clearlyunderstood. Accordingly, and as best seen in FIGS. 8 to 11 inclusive,each of the two composite webs 26 includes a first elongated web 40 ofadhesive tape which makes tangential line contact with the shankportions 42 of the various nails 24 in the series and which, when thelongitudinal axes of the nails are disposed in a common plane, lies onone side of such plane. A second elongated web 44 of adhesive tape makescoextensive face-to-face contact with the shank portion 42 of each nailthrough a major circle sector of the cir cumference thereof and alsomakes face-to-face contact with the first web 40 at regions in betweenadjacent nails. Each nail is, in effect, thus encompassed by a ring orband of the adhesive tape material. Various types of adhesive tape arecontemplated for use in connection with the attachment of nails theretoand among these are pressure sensitive tape, heat-responsive tape whichbecomes adhesive upon heating thereof, tape which derives its adhesivequalities by the application thereto of a suitable solvent, and tape towhich there has been applied an adhesive substance such as glue.Irrespective of the particular type of adhesive tape employed, theessential features of the invention remain substantially the same.

Neither the width of the composite .webs 26 nor the spacing thereof iscritical. Where small nails are concerned, a single web may besufiicient to maintain the nails properly spaced and to hold them insubstantial parallelism. Where larger nails are concerned, two or morewebs may be employed. Ordinarily there will be one web 26 adjacent thelower ends of the nails spaced an appreciable distance below the nailheads 46.

In the assembled nail strip, the spacing between adjacent nails is suchthat wide freedom of swinging movement of each nail about each adjacentnail may take place. Preferably the spacing between adjacent nails issuch that each nail may be brought into contiguity with a nail onceremoved therefrom. Stated in other words, nail spac ing is such that anythree consecutive nails in the series may be grouped in a contiguoustriangular structure.

A nail strip constructed according to the present invention, and asindicated above, is possessed of numerous advantages when employed inconnection with a power actuated nailing tool. When loaded into acartridge shell such as the shell 12, the various nail groups willreadily distribute themselves within the compartments 16, 18 and 20 and,during operation of the pneumatic or other nail driving tool the nailsWill readily pass from one compartment to the next compartment under thepulling influence of the composite webs 26 as previously set forth. Whenthe nail strip is used independently of an enclosing cartridge .shell,the strip may be caused to assume any desired form as for example theform of an involutely .wound coil such as has been indicated at 50inFIG. 11, and from which coil the nails may be successively drawn as thestrip is fed endwise through a magazine.

' Referring again to FIGS. 1 to 7 inclusive for a more detaileddescription of the cartridge shell 12, in its illus-. trated formthisshell is preferably, but not necessarily, formed of a suitable plasticmaterial as for example light gauge polyethylene sheet material of atransparent, translucent or opaque nature. It is comprised of twosimilar. complementary sections 52 and 54 (FIG. 7) each of which is ofgenerally, rectangular cup-shape design. Considering the shell 12 in theupright position which it as sumes when loaded in a magazine and inwhich it is shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the open rims of the sections 52 and54 are provided with laterally turned rim flanges 56 and 58 respectivelywhich are disposed in face-to-face contact and are suitably securedtogether as for example by heat sealing or. by an adhesive or solvent.When the sections are thus secured together, a structure is providedhaving top and bottom walls 60 and 62, side walls 64 and 66, an angularrear end wall 68, and a front wall 70 which is interrupted by theprovision of the aforemens tioned nail discharge passage 30. Thelongitudinal extent of the shell section 52 is slightly less than thatof the section 54 so that the rim flanges 56 and 58 at the forward endof the shell are out of register as clearly shown in FIGS. 2 and 6, thusdefining the nail outlet passage 3th. A tab or flap 72 is provided onthe rim flange 58 and extends medially across the outlet passage 30 andserves to yieldingly restrain movement of the nails outward of thechamber 16 so that the nails will be prevented from spilling from theshell during handling of the latter prior to introduction thereof intothe magazine of a power actuated tool. 7

The three compartments 16, 18 and 20 are established by the provision oftwo pairs of opposed internal ribs 74 (FIGS. 6 and 7) which projectinwardly out of the inclined planes ofthe side Walls 64 and 66 and whichdefine therebetween the aforementioned nail passages 28. Each pair ofopposed ribs, in etfect, establishes a transverse dividing Wall betweenadjacent compartments with one of the nail passages 28 being centrallydisposed in such wall. As best seen in FIGS. 5 and 7, the upper regionof each rib 74 is relieved as at 76 so that the width of the variouspassages 28 between opposed ribs is increased to accommodate movement ofthe nail heads 46 through the passages. The width of thepassages 28 inthe vincinity of the relieved areas 76 is slightly greater thanthe-diameter of a nail head while the width of the remaining portions ofthese passages is slightly greater than the-diameter of a nail shank. Ithas been found that optimum conditions of nail flow from one compartmentto the next compartment will obtain when these wider upper portions ofthe passages are on the order of one and one-half times the diameter ofa nail head and the remaining portions of the passages are one andone-half times the diameter of a nail shank.

As shown in FIGS. 2.and 3, the lower pointed ends of the nails 24 in thethree compartments 16, 18 and 20 are supported upon the bottom wall 62.The grouping or bunching of the nails in these compartments establishesthree nail groups which are generally of tapered or frusto-conicalconfiguration and, thus the downwardly and inwardly inclined side Walls64 and 66 serve to accommodate such a configuration and closely containthe nails within the shell.

' Referring now to FIG. 6 wherein the association of ,one of the nailcartridges With a power actuated nail driving tool has beenschematically illustrated, the general outline of a nail magazineassociated with a power actuated nail driving tool has been illustratedby dotted lines and designated at 80. The magazine is provided with arelatively wide nail reservoir section 82 and with a front guide section84 through which the oriented nails successively pass in moving to thedriving station 5 Where they are operated upon by an impact. driver 86..Any suitable means may be provided for advancing the nailsintermittently to the driving station, a toothed impeller wheel 88 beingsuitable for this purpose. The impeller wheel 88 may be operatedintermittently by suitable ratchet and pawl mechanism (not shown). Themanner in which the nails 24 are drawn or pulled from the cartridgeshell has been previously set forth but by way of further ex planationit is pointed out that in the disclosure of FIG. 6, the compartment16,which originally contained a full quota of nails, is shown as beingsubstantially depleted of nails. The compartment 18 is shown as beingpractically depleted, while the compartment 20 is shown as containing afull quota of nails. In :the illustration of FIG. 6, the pulling forceof the impeller Wheel 88 is being applied through a short section of thenail strip 22 in the compartment .16 to the nails in the intermediatesection 18. It ill be understood that upon continued operation of thenail driving tool, after the nails in the compartment 18 have beensubstantially depleted, a linearly straight section of the nail strip.22 will extend through the two compartments 16 and18 so that the nailsin the compartment 20 will then be drawn successively through bothcompartments 18 and 16 inthe order named and thus conducted to thedriving station S.

It should be observed at this point that the generally rounded or curvedcorner regions of the shell, as Well as the opposed rounded crestportions of the ribs 74 and also the sloping sections of the interruptedfront wall of the shell, all contribute toward facility of nail movementwithin the shell. At no time are the nails obliged to pass around sharpeorners and thus a minimum of pulling tension is required to withdrawthe nails from the various compartments of the shell.

The invention is not to be limited to the exact arrangement of partsshown in the accompanying drawings or described in this specification asvarious changes in the details of construction may be resorted towithout departing from the spirit of the invention. For example,although the cartridge 10 has been shown and described as beingcompartmented to provide three individual internal compartments 16, 18and 20, it is obvious that a greater or a'lesser number of suchcompartments may be provided if'desired; Under certain circumstances asingle internal chamber within the shell may sufiice for the purposesintended. If desired, the sectional character of the shell 12 may bevaried, it being further contemplated that the shell may be of'one-piececonstruction. The shell 12' is not necessarily limited to use inconnection with the packaging ofnails and the same may, with or withoutmodification, as required, be employed for the packaging of varioustypes of interconnected unidirectionally oriented fasteners other thannails. Thus, throughout the specification and claims the term nail is tobe construed broadly to include such other fasteners. Therefore, onlyinsofar as the invention has particularly been pointed out in theaccompanying claims is the same to be limited.

Having thus described the invention, What we claim and desire to secureby Letters Patent is:

1. A nail cartridge'for use in a nail magazine associated with a naildriving machine and comprising: a cartridge shell of box-likeconfiguration, having a top wall, a bottom wall, side walls and afrontend wall, a'transversely extending vertical partition wallprojecting between said side walls and dividing the interior'of theshell into adjacent nail-receiving compartments, and a flexible nailstrip disposed within said shell and, when the strip is in itsextendedcondition, comprising a row of nails arranged in side-by-side spacedparallel relationship, and a flexible web of -a width appreciably lessthan the length of the nail shanks, having a side'face thereof adheredto each nail shank, said partition wall providing a vertically elongatednail passage establishing communication between the compartments forpassage of nails therethrough, said front'end wall being provided with avertically elongated nail outlet opening, a medial region of said nailstrip projecting loosely through said nail passage'with the nailsthereof on opposite sides of said medialregion being groupedtogether insubstantial contiguous relationship with the nails being disposed inapproximate vertical positions and substantially filling saidcompartments whereby, upon pulling of thestri-p endwise outwardlythroughsaid outlet opening the nails in the adjacent compartment will bewithdrawn from the nail group contained therein until substantialdepletion thereof, after which the nails in the other compartment willbe drawn through said" adjacent compartment and. Withdrawn from saidoutlet opening.

2. A nail cartridge as set forth in claim 1, wherein said verticallyelongated nail passage conforms generally to the outline of a nail whenthe latter is disposed vertically.

3. A nail cartridge as set forth in claim 1, wherein all of the nails ofsaid nail strip have their lower ends supported upon said bottom wall,and wherein said vertically elongated nail passage is of substantiallyfull shell height in that it extends from said bottom wall to a regionadjacent the top wall.

4. A nail cartridge as set forth in claim 1, wherein all of the nails insaid nail strip have their lower ends supported upon said bottom wall,wherein said vertically elongated nail passage is of substantially fullshell height in that it extends from said bottom wall to a region adjacent the top wall, wherein the transverse width of said nail passage atany selected level therealong is at least slightly greater than thewidth and less than twice the width of a nail at a corresponding level,and wherein said side walls slope downwardly and inwardly toward eachother to accommodate the inherent generally frustopyramidal contour ofeach nail group imparted thereto by reason of its nail grouping.

5. A nail'cartridge as set forth in claim 4, wherein said side walls areformed with a pair of inwardly directed opposed trough-like ribs whichdefine therebetween said nail passage.

6. A nail cartridge as set forth in claim 5, wherein said trough-likeribs are relieved in the'extreme upper regions thereof to accommodatemovement of the nail heads through said nail passage.

7. A nail cartridge as set forth in claim 5, wherein said flexible webis of a composite nature and includes a length of narrow normally flat'but flexible tape ad-hesively bonded to the nail shanks in tangentialrelationship and on the same side of the row along respective lines ofcontact extending lengthwise of the shanks, whereby, when pulling forceis applied to said nail strip tending to withdraw nails from the shellthrough said outlet opening, the tension in said tape will be isolatedfrom the adhesive bond between the tape and said nail shanks.

8. A-nail cartridge as set forth in claim 5, wherein the trough-likeribs are provided with side wall surfaces which are inclined inwardlywith respect to each other and wherein said front end wall is providedwith wall sections which are inclined inwardly and forwardly withrespect to each other and which define therebetween said nail outletopening, said inclined wall surfaces and sections facilitating nailmovement within the shell toward said nail passage and said outletopening.

9. A nail cartridge as set forth in claim 8 and including, additionally,a flexible nail-retaining tab on one of said front end wall sec-tionsextending at least partially across the nail outlet opening foryieldably restraining movement of the nails outwardly through saidoutlet opening.

10. A flexible nail strip for use in the nail magazine of a nail-drivingtool and designed for cooperation with a nail-feeding mechanism of thetype having a movable feeding element which engagesthe medial regions ofsuccessive nails of the strip and feeds the same sidewise and forwardlyinto a driver slot, thus pulling the strip bodily endwise from themagazine, said nail strip comprising: a row of like nails havingenlarged heads and depending shanks and arranged in side-by-side spacedparallel relationship with their heads disposed in a common plane, andtwo substantially identical vertically spaced composite flexibleribbon-like webs adhesively connected to the nail shanks and serving tohold the nails captured by the webs, one of said webs being disposed aslight distance below the nail heads and the other web being disposed aslight distance above the lower ends of the nail shanks, the medialregions of the nail shanks being devoid of webbing and thus beingexposed for engagement by said feeding element, each web including afirst length of narrow normally flat but'film-like flexible tapeadhesively bonded to the nail shanks in tangential relationship and onthe same side of the row and along respective lines of contactextending'lengt'hwise of the shanks, and a second similar length offilm-like flexible tape having a cylindrical loop portions in the formof major circle sectors encompassing each nail shank and adhesivelybonded thereto and having intervening normally flat portions bondedcoextensively to the intervening normally flat portions of the firstlength of flexible tape in face-toface contact therewith, said enlargedheads being closely spaced edge to edge relation and the spacing betweenadjacent nail shanks and the consequent extent of said interveningportions being suffi'ciently great to enable each nail to move intocontiguity in either direction of nail strip flexion with a nail in therow once removed therefrom, whereby the nail strip as a whole may beindiscriminately gathered in the nail magazine without localized tiltingfor endwise pulling therefrom under the influence of said nail feedingelement.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 6 1/-1871 Fowler 31273 X 2/ 1875Sturtevant 206-56 6/ 1903 Pope. 7/ 19-21 Miller. 5/1940 Gardner 220-205X 10 10 Z'workykin et. a1; 2-2020.5 X Seiferth 206--56 X Mellon220--20.5 X Peterson 20656 Baum et a1. 206-56 JOSEPH R. LECLAIR, PrimaryExaminer.

THERON E. CONDON, Examiner.

I. M. CASKIE, Assistant Examiner.

1. A NAIL CARTRIDGE FOR USE IN A NAIL MAGAZINE ASSOCIATED WITH A NAILDRIVING MACHINE AND COMPRISING: A CARTRIDGE SHELL OF BOX-LIKECONFIGURATION, HAVING A TOP WALL, A BOTTOM WALL, SIDE WALLS AND A FRONTEND WALL, A TRANSVERSELY EXTENDING VERTICAL PARTITION WALL PROJECTINGBETWEEN SAID SIDE WALLS AND DIVIDING THE INTERIOR THE SHELL INTOADJACENT NAIL-RECEIVING COMPARTMENTS, AND A FLEXIBLE NAIL STRIP DISPOSEDWITHIN SAID SHELL AND, WHEN THE STRIP IS IN ITS EXTENDED CONDITION,COMPRISING A ROW OF NAILS ARRANGED IN SIDE-BY-SIDE SPACED PARALLELRELATIONSHIP, AND A FLEXIBLE WEB OF A WIDTH APPRECIABLY LESS THAN THELENGTH OF THE NAIL SHANKS, HAVING A SIDE FACE THEREOF ADHERED TO EACHNAIL SHANK, SAID PARTITION WALL PROVIDING A VERTICALLY ELONGATED NAILPASSAGE ESTABLISHING COMMUNICATION BETWEEN THE COMPARTMENT FOR PASSAGEOF NAILS THERETHROUGH, SAID FRONT END WALL BEING PROVIDED WITH AVERTICALLY ELONGATED NAIL OUTLET OPENING, A MEDICAL REGION OF SAID NAILSTRIP PROJECTING LOOSELY THROUGH SAID NAIL PASSAGE WITH THE NAILSTHEREOF ON OPPOSITE SIDES OF SAID MEDIAL REGION BEING GROUPED TOGETHERIN SUBSTANTIAL CONTIGUOUS RELATIONSHIP WITH THE NAILS BEING DISPOSED INAPPROXIMATE VERTICAL POSITIONS AND SUBSTANTIALLY FILLING SAIDCOMPARTMENTS WHEREBY, UPON PULLING OF THE STRIP ENDWISE OUTWARDLYTHROUGH SAID OUTLET OPENING THE NAILS IN THE ADJACENT COMPARTMENT WILLBE WITHDRAWN FROM THE NAIL GROUP CONTAINED THEREIN UNTIL SUBSTANTIALDEPLETION THEREOF, AFTER WHICH THE NAILS IN THE OTHER COMPARTMENT WILLBE DRAWN THROUGH SAID ADJACENT COMPARTMENT AND WITHDRAWN FROM SAIDOUTLET OPENING.